The present invention relates to a golf cart system for installation on a golf course and, more particularly, to a golf cart system which enables a golf cart to run on the fairway of a golf course.
Heretofore several types of golf carts for carrying golfers or golf equipment have been known. These include, for example, three- and four-wheeled carts driven by a battery-powered electric motor or a small internal combustion engine. However, these carts are not suitable to be run on a golf course especially a fairway because their tires would come into direct contact with the grass and would likely damage the grass. Accordingly, they have to be run on the rough or on a paved path running at the side of the rough. Recently there have been developed golf cart systems adapted to run on rails embedded in the ground of a golf course. These cart systems do not damage the grass, but since they use rails having a wide top surface exposed above the ground of a golf course, there is a risk that the rails will interfere with the golfers' game when a golf ball lands on the exposed rail surface. Thus the golf cart systems of the prior art using embedded rails also have to be installed at a place outside the rough.
When a golf cart system is installed at a place outside the rough and far from the fairway, the golfers or their caddies have to walk back and forth between the fairway and the cart whenever they change golf clubs. This is not only troublesome for the golfers and caddies but also delays the progress of the game.
For solving this problem, the applicant of the present application previously developed a novel embedded-rail type golf cart system which can be installed on the fairway as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 33363/1986. This golf cart system uses a track having a very narrow top surface exposed above the ground so that there is little chance of a golf ball hitting against the track even though the track is laid across the fairway.
The golf cart system disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 33363/1986 is shown in FIG. 8 and comprises a track 1 and a cart 2. Vertically and downwardly extending posts 3 are secured to a base frame 2a of the cart 2 and mount thereon driving wheels 4 and anti-rolling rollers 5 for preventing the rolling motion of the cart 2. A battery and an electric motor (or a small internal combustion engine) for driving the wheels 4 are accommodated within a housing 2b. The driving wheels 4 run on lower inner surfaces 1a of the track 1 and the anti-rolling rollers 5 run on upper inner surfaces 1b of the track 1. For applying the anti-rolling force to the cart 2, the rollers 5 are always strongly urged against the upper inner surfaces 1b by springs 6.
With this construction, a heavy load (not only the dead weight of the cart 2 itself but also the reaction force of the springs 6) is always applied between the driving wheels 4 and the lower running surfaces la (i.e. inner surfaces of the bottom wall of the track) of the track 1. This causes an excessive frictional force therebetween and also wastefully increases the consumption of the battery power or the gasoline used for driving the cart 2, as a result, the distance that the cart 2 can travel per charge of the battery or per tank of gasoline is shortened.
Another problem of this golf cart system is that the power anti-rolling by the rollers 5 is not sufficient and therefore cart 2 is liable to be turned radially outward due to the centrifugal force when it travels on a curved portion of the track.